Confinement
by Calanthien
Summary: The story of Ico and Yorda, two prisoners in a dilapidated castle occupied by evil. This is my first work on this site, and I sincerely hope someone enjoys it. Reviews would be greatly appreciated.
1. Notes

This, as stated in the summary, is my first work I have entered on this site. It's basically Ico in narrative form, but I will add a few things, just to "flesh out" the whole experience.  
  
Ico was one of the very first games I ever got for my Playstation2, and it instantly entranced me. It is, simply put, the most beautiful interactive experience ever. I wanted to write a story about it, and here it is.  
  
The biggest change I've made is put Yorda's language in English, because it makes it much easier to write, not to mention more understandable. I'll leave it up to you whether Ico understands her or not, and whether she understands Ico.   
  
I really would like some reviews on this... I'm only a freshman in high school, so it's hard to get anyone to notice my writing. I hope someone enjoys this, at least a little bit. I'm going to try to update fairly frequently, and I'll also try to let you all know when I'll be gone for a bit. Thanks a lot for just reading this, and enjoy the story. 


	2. The Meeting

A loud grinding noise came from outside his small prison. Ico jerked his arms in an attempt to free them from the wooden handcuffs. The grinding noise came to a sudden halt, and the room was quiet once more, save for the distant sound of wind.  
  
Ico moved again.  
  
The jar, for lack of a better name, began to tilt forward. It fell out of its small inset in the stone, broke open. Ico spilled out, onto the ground eight feet below. He landed on his head, and was knocked unconscious.   
  
He was walking on a spiral staircase, high above the floor. Looking towards the center of the stairwell, he noticed a cage suspended from the ceiling. Ico ran faster up the stairs. As he came to the cage, an inky black substance began to spill out, and spatter the floor hundreds of feet beneath the cage. The form of a person appeared from the blackness; the form of a girl. Ico tried to call out to her, but he was being pulled back through the wall. The rock scraped against his hands, and he saw a black shadow pass over his body.   
  
Awake. Ico struggled to stand, his arms and legs feeling like stone. In his mind, the dream he had just experienced surfaced. He had to find her. What was she doing in a cage?  
  
Ico took stock of his surroundings. He was standing on the lowest floor of a large chamber. Jars like his own lined the walls. He imagined what was held in those jars: bodies of the village's previous sacrifices, horned boys just like himself, taken here and locked away, forsaken...  
  
Enough. There was no use dwelling on these things now. He was alone, utterly and totally alone. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, but the only reply was an echo.   
  
Fear raced through his mind. What could he do? He was alone, trapped and alone in a centuries-old castle on an island in the middle of an ocean. His only hope was the girl he had seen in his dream.   
  
There were three staircases at the far end of the room. Ico began to climb the middle one, towards a lever mounted on the top wall. As he got closer, he broke into a run, a run of desperation, hoping this lever would somehow let him out of this place. He reached the lever, jumped, and pulled it downwards. As he did so, another grinding noise came to his ears, the sound of a door opening below him. Ico descended the stairs, and for the first time, noticed a door directly below the staircase. It was open. He stepped through it, into a much smaller room.  
  
Windows. There were windows above him, reachable only by a ledge, which was reachable... how? There were crates across from the ledge. Ico climbed up the containers, and leapt from the highest one, in an attempt to reach the ledge. He didn't make it.  
  
Falling hard to the ground, Ico yelped. Pain shot through his entire body, and he feared he might have broken his ankle, or his legs. He stood, however, and the pain quickly subsided.  
  
How to get to the ledge? There was a chain hanging from the ceiling... maybe he could climb that, and leap to the windows.   
  
Ico jumped and caught hold of the chain, and began to scurry upwards. He oriented himself so his back faced the window, and jumped away from the chain. Landing, he slammed against the wall beneath one of the windows. Dust was kicked up from his fall, and he sneezed. After adjusting to his new orientation, he climbed through the window, and into a strangely familiar room.  
  
A gigantic spiral staircase circled around the room, ascending all the way to the ceiling, which itself seemed to reach the sky. A cage hung from the ceiling as well.  
  
A memory of a dream flashed through Ico's head, and he climbed the ladder leading to the staircase quickly.  
  
Ico dashed up the staircase. His breathing quickened, along with his pulse. He sensed maybe he should slow down, but he couldn't bring himself to. There might be someone in that cage, he thought to himself. Maybe she knows how to escape. Maybe she can lead me out.  
  
Ico reached what was seemingly the end of the staircase, but noticed another chain. He scrambled up the chain and continued running up the stairs. As he got closer to the cage, he slowed down. The wind was growing louder the higher he climbed.   
  
A girl sat in the cage, with her face turned towards the floor, and her back turned toward Ico.  
  
"Is anybody there? Who are you?" shouted Ico to the girl, but no response came. "What are you doing in there?" he asked, and still no reply. "Hold on. I will get you down," Ico stated. But he realized he had no idea how. Looking around, the staircase had broken off just a few feet away from his position. He could see a lever on the other side.   
  
Ico prepared to jump, but had second thoughts. The gap was large, maybe ten feet across. He'd never make it. He would fall and break every bone in his body. There had to be another way.  
  
Glancing up, he saw an open window. Sunlight streamed through it. He climbed to it, and stepped through.  
  
He landed on a balcony protruding from the castle's wall. It served, apparently, as a viewpoint of the rest of the fortress, for it offered a breathtaking view of the surrounding environment. Water surrounded the castle on all sides, with land just barely visible across the ocean. Ico paced around the balcony, coming to another open window, leading back into the spiral staircase room. He climbed through it, and landed on the other side of the shattered staircase, just a few feet away from the precious lever.  
  
Sighing in relief, Ico pulled the lever. The cage began to descend quickly towards the floor, and the girl stood up in alarm. She stared up at Ico, but her face was too far away for him to make out her features. It was time to meet her.  
  
Ico climbed back through the window, and then back into the staircase via the other window. He sprinted downwards, shimmying down the chain, and sliding down the ladder. Running over to the cage, the girl stared at him.  
  
"Can you get out?" he asked. She did not respond, just stared at him.  
  
Ico looked around again, and noticed another ladder opposite from the one leading to the staircase. He climbed it, and came to a ledge just three feet from the top of the cage. From there, he leapt onto the cage, hoping maybe the girl would say something, or climb out.   
  
As Ico landed on the cage, the chain it hung from snapped, and the cell crashed to the ground. Ico struggled to keep balance, but he fell backwards, onto the ground. A torch fell nearby him, bathing him in yellow light.   
  
The cage's door had also broken open. Stepping through, the girl looked around the room, and then at Ico. She was glowing, apparently with no outside source. Her entire body seemed to radiate light. She approached Ico.  
  
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" said the girl softly, her voice the sound of wind blowing through trees.   
  
"They... they tried to sacrifice me because I have horns. Kids with horns are brought here," replied Ico, his voice quavering, and he began to scoot backwards. The girl kneeled in front of him, and extended her hand towards his face.  
  
A black shadow covered the wall behind her.  
  
"Were they trying to sacrifice you too?" Ico asked. The girl just looked at him.  
  
A being emerged from the shadow.   
  
It, too, was a shadow, with two pinpoints of light at its head, eyes. It pounced at the mysterious white girl, slung her over its shoulder, and began to walk towards a black portal in the floor. The girl screamed, and Ico stood up quickly, grabbing the torch from beside him.  
  
The creature entered the portal, and began to drag the girl through as well. Ico rushed to her and grabbed her outstretched hand, pulling her out.  
  
"What was that creature that came after you?" stammered the horned boy, his eyes wide with fear, his entire body trembling. The girl merely shook her head.  
  
"It's too dangerous for us to be here! We have to get out of here!" Ico said, and gripped her hand tightly in his.  
  
The portal began to glow white, and the same shadow-creature stepped out.   
  
"Stay away from her!" shouted Ico, swinging the now-extinguished torch at the being like a sword. To his surprise, the creature leapt backwards, as if frightened.   
  
The horned boy leapt towards the creature, letting go of the girl's hand. Smashing his stick into the being's side, inky-black liquid spurted from the creature, and it began to rush towards the girl.  
  
Ico was faster.  
  
He swung the stick towards the creature's head, causing another copious burst of black liquid to spatter the wall. It quickly evaporated into the dusty stone.  
  
The creature would not stop. It pounced at the girl as if rabid, making chittering noises like a wild animal, outstretching its claws toward her.   
  
Ico's stick connected with the being again, and again, and again, until the creature fell and didn't get up again. Its body dissolved, sinking quickly into the stone floor. The portal faded as well, and black smoke took its place.  
  
Ico stood triumphant, then remembered the girl. She stood behind her cage, trembling, terrified. Ico ran to her and grasped her hand tightly.  
  
"My name's Ico," he began, "and I'm going to get you out of here." 


	3. The Bridge and the Battle

They had passed through a door. The door, however, maybe shouldn't be called a door. It was a passage that was blocked by statues. The statues contained bodies: the bodies of previous horned children, kneeling inside, stone now. When the girl had approached the statues, they had turned white and moved out of her way, just as the ones the warrior separated with the sword, when Ico had been brought here.   
  
Ico and the girl now sat on a seat made of stone and iron, which was on a balcony by a long bridge. The bridge crossed over water, which was hundreds of feet below them. A fall would mean certain death.  
  
The seat was pulsating with white light as they sat there. It made Ico relax. The girl, whose name was Yorda, simply sat and took in her surroundings. She still glowed, with the same light as the seat did. Ico suspected the two had something to do with one another, but did not ask, for no answer would come even if he did.  
  
He was still wondering why he freed Yorda. He asked himself if he really believed she knew a way out of here. Looking at her now, he didn't think she did. She was even more helpless than he was. Her hands were frail, as was the rest of her body. Her eyes were a deep purple, and her hair was just vaguely light brown. The rest of her was as white as a cloud. Ico pondered. Maybe she came from a cloud.  
  
He reflected on why he had been brought here. It must have been because of his horns. No one else in his village had had them, and it seemed everyone hated him because he did. He never had many friends; in fact, most people refused outright to speak to him. On his twelfth birthday, men with masks came and took him away from his family. His family was glad to see him go. Ico had cried, and screamed, and yelled, but no one had listened. The masked men brought him to his jar and locked him in, then left.  
  
And now he was here with a mysterious girl named Yorda. She could not fight, she could not speak his language, and she could barely climb a ledge without Ico's help. And Ico had pledged to get her out of this castle. So he would.  
  
He stood up and picked up the stick from the ground. It was time to move on. Yorda stood too, and Ico took her hand. She didn't resist his touch; in fact, she gripped his hand just as tightly as he gripped hers.   
  
Walking across the bridge, Ico felt it move underneath his feet. He gasped, and on instinct, began to run. Yorda struggled to keep up with him. Their pace was too slow, however, and the bridge collapsed under the girl.   
  
Yorda was dangling off the bridge, one of her hands in Ico's. Ico was lying on the bridge, struggling to pull her up. I won't let go, he thought. I can't let go. He kneeled with all his might, and began to pull Yorda back onto solid ground. Her other hand grabbed his, and Ico managed to get her up. He gripped her hand tightly again, and began to sprint across the bridge. He had to hurry. If another section collapsed, they might not make it.  
  
Soon after they had crossed the bridge, a noise like thunder ripped through the air, and the entire bridge collapsed. Ico peered over the edge and watched the mass of rock smash into the water and disappear from sight. They certainly would have been killed had they been on the bridge.  
  
As Ico straightened and glanced around, he noticed Yorda was standing just a few feet away from more of the statues. She looked frightened of them. Ico walked towards her, and she turned to face him. She made a gesture with her hand that suggested she wanted to touch him. Ico clasped her hand tightly, and began to walk towards the statues. Again they were bathed in white energy; again they parted to allow passage. And again Yorda stumbled, looking at the statues with a mix of confusion and sadness. She dashed through the door before Ico could stop her.  
  
He followed her into the room. It was fairly small, with a set of stairs leading down to a platform, and another space below the platform. In that space was a large block. Yorda stood on the first stair. Ico took her hand, and began to lead her down, when a black portal materialized on the middle platform.   
  
Two of the shadow-creatures emerged, one skinny and small and one huge and tall, along with several small, spider-like ones that immediately skittered up the walls, out of reach. The larger, bi-pedal ones charged at Yorda, but they had to pass through her horned guard first.  
  
As the skinny shadow charged, Ico swung his stick up, catching the creature in the head, sending it flying up and back, into a wall. No dust was kicked up by its fall; it was like it didn't exist.  
  
The larger one, which was twice Ico's height, did not so much run as stomp. It seemed to be amused by the boy with the stick, until that stick bashed his head in, causing a burst of black ink to splatter over the floor.   
  
The skinny one had Yorda, Ico realized. He jumped and swung the stick at the creature holding the girl, and Yorda was dropped on the floor. She yelped and ran behind Ico, as he hit the being again and again with the stick.   
  
As the skinny shadow fell and evaporated, Ico turned his attention to the larger one. It was staying just out of reach of the lethal wooden stick, moving along the far wall. Ico leapt forward, hitting the shadow hard in the torso, which caused it to stumble. The boy seized the opportunity and began pounding the stick into the creature, black liquid splattering everywhere with every hit. Eventually the being's eyes disappeared, and the remains dissipated into the stone, just like all the others.   
  
The spider-shadows were advancing on Yorda. They did nothing but skitter around her feet. Ico merely chased them away, but they were too fast, and they climbed up the wall before he could hit them. When one leapt down to Yorda, Ico ran over to it, stepped on it. It disappeared without so much as a spurt of blackness. He did the same with the others.  
  
After all the shadows had been eliminated, the portal disappeared in a puff of black smoke, and the room was empty again, save for the boy with horns and the mysterious white girl. 


End file.
